Our E-Books Are Reading Us (WSJ 6/29/12)

Wall Street Journal article by Alexandra Alter, "Our E-Books Are Reading Us" is worth reading, sharing, and discussing.  http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2012/06/our_ebooks_are.shtml

As publishers and authors learn more about how readers read, which books they read faster, which lines are highlighted the most by readers... it will change what readers are offered. That is not necessarily a good thing. Think I'll stay offline book-wise and keep my reading choices a little more to myself. On the bright side, it might help text book publishers learn how to better engage students. My suggestion is to reference good books -- such as historical fiction, science fiction, collections of best science articles -- throughout a textbook.  Serious students will be enriched. Others might just stumble upon some really great reads.

Here's how Alexander Alter's article starts...

"It takes the average reader just seven hours to read the final book in Suzanne Collins's "Hunger Games" trilogy on the Kobo e-reader—about 57 pages an hour. Nearly 18,000 Kindle readers have highlighted the same line from the second book in the series: "Because sometimes things happen to people and they're not equipped to deal with them." And on Barnes & Noble's Nook, the first thing that most readers do upon finishing the first "Hunger Games" book is to download the next one."  more

E-Books and Exercise

What is your daily workout? Do you exercise both your mind and body?  Each day, do you step onto a treadmill or climb onto an exercise bike to stay in shape while reading or listening to a good book?  This image illustrates my daily visit to the YMCA. 

Download a thick page-turner mystery or best seller, start walking (hold on to the treadmill's siderails or your eReader) and shed pounds while getting your cardio exercise.  This is a book lover's fitness secret. In fact, I bet schools could help fight youth obesity and increase literacy levels with this secret strategy: an hour a day walking with a book. Librarians and coaches could collaborate on how to best use these cool tools: eReaders, eBooks, and treadmills. 


Notice that one person prefers the printed word while the second image shows an eReader, in this case, an iPad and an iPod.


A variety of gift items are available at the Library Advocate's DesignClass with this design.  See cafepress.com/DesignClass

  

Digital Pop-Up Book - Library Annual Report

Topeka and Shawnee County (Kansas) Public Library's Creative Staff created an online annual report, presented as a digital pop-up book. Very cool. See article by Mark Hall of CJOnline.

A how-to workshop and template would do well at any library conference! It is a great way to communicate what your library does, did, and is capable of doing. Very nice! Love the visualization. Are the Creative Staff from TSCPL.org going to share? What's next from Michael Perkins, the library's digital services supervisor?

Birth of a Classic: Online Companion

The worlds foremost math handbook for nearly 50 years and the most cited publication in the history of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) now has a fresh look, updated data and a new digital companion. The Handbook of Mathematical Functions has been updated and available online as the National Digital Library of Mathematical Functions. See the video below.



Looks excellent and long-overdue. Is this tool useful for high school students, too?

The GOOGLE Book Settlement & The Future of Reading

Here is a well-written article on "5 Ways the GOOGLE Book Settlement Will Change the Future of Reading" by Annalee Newitz. Annalee is the editor-in-chief of a blog called io9: We Come From the Future.

This is an overview of the impact of the copyright law and its challenges, related to books. "Book Monster" illustrations are colorful.

Annalee lists several ways copyright will change, thanks to the newest version of the Google Book Settlement (aka: GBS 2.0):

1. It may become harder to find information online about books from your favorite writers.
   
2. You will find yourself reading free books online, by authors who have disappeared. And Google will make money when you do.
3. Google will be competing with Apple and Amazon and everyone else to be your favorite online bookseller.
4. Libraries and bookstores will become the same thing.
5. Pulp fiction will make a comeback in unexpected ways.

Storyist - Software for Novelists and Screen Writers

Here is Post #1 after two days touring Mac World exhibits in San Francisco on 1/8 and 1/9. I hadn't visited Mac World in years. I focused on finding fun, cool tools.

Storyist is software especially designed for novelists and screen writers. As a reader, I often wonder how a writer or storyteller organizes all the details, characters, and research before or during the writing of a book. Now, after seeing this cool software, I could see myself possibly taking the plunge or at least helping a writer with the research for a book or screen play. In addition to a word processor with page layout and index cards, there are storyboards and a database of sorts to track your characters, plot, and settings. California-based Storyist is a cool tool to show friends and family who are writing "the great American novel" or with teachers who may want their writing classes to experience a structured writing tool.

Congratulations to CEO and Storyist developer Steve Shepard and Managing Editor Christina Cary. This blogger was impressed.

OpenLibrary.org

The California State Library announced LSTA grants for 2007-2008. One of the grants went to an Internet Archive project named OpenLibrary.org, a website that allows the public to access web pages containing information about digitized versions of published books that are available on the Internet. The site is in BETA. Check it out. Take a guided tour.